New data on police procurement highlights the
need for police forces to push opportunities to collaborate in order to deliver
greater value for money for the taxpayer.

Since 2010/11 forces have saved in excess of
£290m through better procurement and collaboration, but new information
released today shows that that there are still many areas where forces could
work together to identify savings.

The release is part of the Government’s
transparency agenda to make the police more accountable to the public, and
provide information on the prices paid by police for 18 essential items
including forensic, telephony and office supplies. Forces are also asked to
report on the extent to which they have collaborated to purchase these items. […]

Today’s release follows the publication in
September 2015 of the prices paid by the police for items of vehicles, uniform
and related equipment and will allow the public to further compare all 43
forces in England Wales. Some of the items in today’s release illustrate the
complex and changing demand on police resources, for example for the analysis
of mobile telephones.

The Leeds-headquartered international language
services company set to take over from Capita to provide courtroom interpreting
in October is looking to hire more than 3,500 language experts.

Thebigword today announced that it has signed a
contract worth up to £120m to provide face-to-face and telephone interpreting
and translations to the Ministry of Justice from 31 October.

The business employs more than 550 people across 11
offices and says it already has 8,000 linguists.

Now that the contract has been signed, thebigword
says it will recruit more than 100 new support staff at its Leeds office and
more than 3,500 language experts.

Thebigword chief executive Larry Gould said
(pictured): ‘The MoJ decided to work with us because we have the experience,
infrastructure and word-class technology.

‘We already work with a range of large-scale public
sector organisations around the world and they know they can trust us to
deliver. This is a fantastic deal for thebigword and further cements our
position as the largest interpreting services provider in Europe.’

More than four years after the controversial
outsourcing of courtroom interpreting to a single contractor, new
arrangements will replace Capita Translation and Interpreting’s contract, which
expires on 30 October.

The contract for non-spoken language services has
reportedly been offered to Cambridge firm Clarion Interpreting Limited.

The contract for independent quality assurance has reportedly
been offered to The Language Shop, a business originally set up by the London
Borough of Newham.

Providing further details about its deal,
thebigword says it will deliver ‘dedicated online portals that seamlessly and
instantly connect linguists with clients needing language support’.

The contract also requires thebigword to develop a
trainee scheme in conjunction with the independent quality assurance supplier.

Gould said thebigword will continue to push for
contracts similar to its MoJ contract in the private and public sectors.

‘We are extremely proud of the work we do breaking
down language bariers around the world everyday and are now looking forward to
helping deliver justice in the UK,’ he added.

‘It’s also fantastic to be welcoming thousands more
skilled linguists to thebigword family.’

The Oldham surgery where doctors rely on people in the waiting room to
do their translation

Doctors at an Oldham surgery placed into
special measures by inspectors are relying on people in the waiting room to
translate for other patients.

The Care Quality Commission say Greenbank
Surgery in Glodwick has a high number of patients who don’t speak English as a
first language, and that interpreters who speak Urdu and Punjabi are needed
frequently.

However, an inspection of the surgery, which
is in Barley Clough Medical Centre, found that formal interpreters were not
being used, and instead staff were relying on relatives or other patients who
were in the waiting room to provide the service.

It also said that despite the high number of
patients who don’t speak English, all information in the waiting room was only
in English.

These were just some of a catalogue of
failings that resulted in Greenbank being placed into special measures.

The
CQC rated it ‘inadequate’ overall and have warned it will be shut down if
improvements are not made within the next six months. […]